Oblivious parents and bratty hell spawn

Greetings, everyone! Stepford Snarker here, coming to you live from her workplace, which will henceforth be known as "The Order."

Seeing as how some of you aren't into the whole list thing, I thought we'd have a story instead. Today's story is called "Stepford Snarker and the Screaming Sneauxflayke."

Picture it. I'm working at my register, having a fairly decent and easy day. And then, they came. A mother, a father, and their kid, about two years old, in the cart. Pretty typical-looking family, or so I thought. As they began unloading their groceries, their child (let's call him "Sneauxflayke"-- it's a good generic name for a brat or annoying person, and people around here love to use "-eaux" in everything) begins chucking a few items onto the belt. Not too unexpected-- some kids have done this before-- so I grit my teeth and try to think of the positives, like them leaving soon.

As I began ringing everything up, Sneauxflayke began screeching at me, "Ring up the cat food! Ring up the cat food!" Did Mommy or Daddy try to hush Sneauxflayke? Nope. They just let him keep yelling at me. I finally finish ringing up the groceries, including the damned cat food. They pay and start loading the groceries into the cart. I hoped that would be the end of it. Nope. No such luck.

Sneauxflayke started yanking on the pen for the credit card machine (attached to a string keeping it attached to the machine) and banging at the machine. I grit my teeth and give the parents a look of "Damn it, control your child! This is why the machines never flipping work correctly!" Do they corral Sneauxflayke? Nope. They take several minutes to gradually get the pen out of Sneauxflayke's hand and move him away from the machine. Not a word of "No" or "Don't."

And some people wonder why I dislike ringing up families with small children.

Comments

Stepford, i had some like that a couple weeks ago. They left their bratty hellspawn to run around the restaurant, screaming and shouting, they wouldn't do anything about it, even when one of the spawn picked up a cast iron bar stool. All i could think was 'please don't drop it and break your foot, i'll get the blame'

My kids NEVER touched the machine or anything else for that matter. They knew what "No", "Not yours", "Keep your hands to yourself", and "Quiet down or you'll go sit in the car until you CAN be quiet" meant. Yeah, we had a couple of bumps in school, but no arrest record in sight. Why do parents think they are doing their kids a favor by being their kid's FRIEND?

When my son was that young, I made sure he always had one of his toys to keep him occupied and not grabbing shit and getting into trouble. Heck, to this day (and he's 10), I still make sure he has something to keep him occupied, so he's not getting all huffy and impatient and grabbing at everything. I guess some people don't realize that being a parent requires you to be an ADULT and make decisions that your kid will not always like. I don't like to punish my son when he does something wrong, but I will just to let him know that first and foremost I am his father, and I make the rules.

The point where Sneauxflayke (love it!) started hammering the machine and screaming would have been where I would have given him my sweetest smile and said in my most syrupy voice, "Now, sweetie, please be careful with that. It's very expensive and fragile!"

When addressed right, most of the time it just embarrasses the parents but they don't get mad at me (thankfully!) Working at a pet store, I've learned to master the art of guilt-fully correcting children when they're banging on the glass, shrieking at the birds, or sticking their fingers in the turtle tank.

heh I was always told "not yours, don't touch!" that included things at the store. The only things I were allowed to touch were items we were going to buy... If i touched something not allowed: my hand got slapped hard enough it stung a bit longer... I learned quickly.... I really wish people would treat their kids the way I was treated.

I second snuzzle. I am very sweet and polite and bribe the children with stamps but I will ask them to stop being unholy terrors. So far no one has gotten upset that I am stifling Sneauxflayke's self expression. I also seem to grab my pen out of babies' hands quite often. Sometimes the parents even thank me for stopping their infant from stabbing themselves in the eye. Maybe it's the child manipulation skills I picked up working in my Mom's daycare.